“Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is
like a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through
them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their
own hue. . . . ”

Friday, July 20, 2012

Traveling is such a huge love for me

exploring other cultures

connecting, wandering, wondering

learning more about myself by learning about others

the excitement of being somewhere completely new

open to the experience of the unknown

♥

I'm so excited right now to be working
on a project which explores the connection between creativity,
traveling and connecting to our best selves. I can't say too much yet
but I am already super excited that some of the artists I admire the
most have said YES to contributing.

Our family has traveled quite a bit
and in 2008 we decided to take our girls who were then 11 and 15 out of
school for 7 months here in Australia and travel up the West Coast of
the US to Canada and then down into Southern Mexico. For the next few
Fridays I am going to revisit our travel blog by posting our travel
posts here as a way of reminding myself of this amazing experience and
introducing you sweet readers to some of the ways I like to travel and
create.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and
adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek
them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru

Enjoy!!

Flashback #5

Flying South for the Winter October 27, 2008

swimming near shasta...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

With every available inch of the car crammed with stuff we headed
South on the I5, bound for Roseburg, 4 hours away, where we would spend
the night with Marco’s cousin Brad, wife Kristy and kids Malaeni and
Garrett. We knew it would be a mind bender as we hadn’t seen each others
kids in 9 years.

Brad & Kristy hadn’t changed at all but the kids
had grown into whole new people…Malaeni, talkative & expressive
dressed for the homecoming dance that night in a gorgeous blue
halterneck and graffitied blue converse sneakers. She still has the same
big beautiful eyes I remember as a baby. Garrett at 15, going through
his uncertain stage, quiet and friendly but taking it all in. We ordered
Chinese for dinner, shared it with Kristy’s lovely parents who now live
with them and hit the sack for an early night and an early start.

Next stop was to be Willows, a small speck on the I5 which I had chosen
only because it was the midway point between Roseburg and Yosemite. Five
hours to Willows and then 5 the next day would see us into Yosemite.
We bunked at the Willows Motel 6 for the night which was luckily right
next door to a great family run, very authentic Mexican restaurant. The
weather had warmed considerably and we had now switched out of our warm
Portland gear and back into our California shorts and singlets. Of
course Marco had never swapped his shorts and T-shirts being immune to
the changes of weather.

Continuing South the next day we passed miles and miles of farmlands and
fruit orchards. This was the heartland of California’s agricultural
belt, supplying food for millions. Semi trailers roared past, filled to
overflowing with ripe Roma tomatoes ready to be made into sauce.
Dilapidated farmhouses appeared sporadically, yards filled with ancient
relics; old tractors, rundown cars and parts, bathtubs, discarded
campers, junkyards of every possible treasure. I yearned to get out and explore but contented myself with fleeting photos as we raced by.

We stopped at Madera for camping supplies and I felt transported into
another world. The supermarket was huge, laden with fresh, luscious
produce and unmistakeably Latino. Most of the farming communities are
Hispanic and we were surrounded by every conceivable chile and tortilla,
sopes and quesos oaxaquenos
( our favourite cheese from Oaxaca).

awe inspiring Yosemite!

We stocked up ( trying to be sensible) and headed West to Yosemite,
out of the flatlands and into the hill country, barren and dotted with
boulders. Slowly up into the Sierras we overlooked striking canyons and
gorges until once again we were amongst the Pines. At the entry to the
National Park we stopped to check our reservations and get directions.
Marco spoke to a man in his sixties who was resting beside his bicycle.
He had taken 2 days to reach this point from Sacramento and would
probably take another 2 days to reach his destination of Tualime Valley.
I shook my head, thinking about the road we had just come up and tried
to imagine doing it on a bike..inconceivable!

Breathtaking Yosemite

Yosemite is beyond words. As we rounded a corner and got a glimpse
into the valley it took our breathe away and like everyone else we had
to pull off the road to take some photos.

We drove down into the valley until we reached our camping site at Upper
Pines. Checking in we carefully read the multiple signs instructing us
how to stay safe and keep the bears away.

At each campsite there was a sturdy metal bear locker equipped with an
ingenious closing device that the bears had not yet managed to figure
out. All food and anything with a scent (hmm does that mean us?) had
to be securely stowed away each night. Beside a photo of a car with its
back door mangled and half ripped off was the warning not to leave
anything in the car (even crumbs) as this would encourage the bears to
try and get into the vehicle. Santana decided she had serious bear
phobia and all of us tried to limit our fluid intake so we wouldn’t have
to leave the safety of our little tent to pee in the night. As it
turned out I spent half the night awake and needing to go, aware of
every little twig and stone beneath my sleeping bag, until finally
around 4am I had to get up the courage to get out of the tent and find a
tree..there was no way I was walking all the way to the toilets The
girls were up soon after and sprinted together up to the bathrooms and
back.

camping at Upper Pines & watching out for bears!

Awake and thankfully alive we planned our day at breakfast. Around
10 we hopped onto one of the free buses that circle the valley floor
every few minutes and rode to one stop to begin the hike up to Vernal
Falls. The walk began nicely, meandering through the shady overhang
beside a bubbling creek but soon began to climb. Marco and Santana
forged ahead and Sienna and I plodded on feeling the breathlessness that
a change in altitude always brings. Sienna has asthma but manages really well and although I kept encouraging her to keep
going I could tell at every steep descent she was getting more and more upset. We
stopped for another rest and I called to Marco to come back and give
her a puff of ventolin. By the time he arrived she was in tears, beside
herself. She described her head pounding and her throat closing which
had me worrying as well.

We rested a while and a kind Indian woman who
was also taking her time gave her gentle advice; “Breathe slowly, look at
the beauty around you, just take your time…..” she told Marco she was
taking it slowly too as she only had one lung. I think this made Sienna
feel a little better and she agreed to keep going after we had rested for a bit.

About another 15 minutes along a tall Indian man came walking
towards us from the direction of the falls.
“My wife sent me back to
tell you its just around the corner…keep going..you can make it!” he
encouraged Sienna.
Around the corner and there we were at the footbridge
at the base of the falls with a perfect view up. The Indian woman was
there with her 2 daughters sitting on a rock sketching.....turns out she
was an artist as well. I took Sienna over and we thanked her for her
kindness. Marco and Santana continued for the second part of the hike
which took them up to the top of the falls but Sienna and I decided that
leisurely stroll downhill was in order.

Over the course of two days we visited many of the sights. Possibly most
amazing was watching the climbers at El Capitan, tiny specks way up
there on sheer, almost vertical cliffs, working their way slowly towards
the top. One has to be a little insane to actually attempt such a
thing, although our friends Rick and Darryl probably wouldn’t agree,
partial as they are to hanging precariously off the sides of Point Perpendicular back home in Jervis Bay.

Begrudgingly we left Yosemite after 2 days wishing we had allocated more
time but excited to get to Fresno to visit Nikki, my crazy (in a good way) online friend that I had met through My Space almost 2 years
before. A prolific blogger, Nikki spills the beans on almost every
aspect of her life, good and bad…open hearted ( in both a spiritual and
literal sense having been through 2 open heart surgeries in her young
life) we were all looking forward to meeting Aunt Nik and her cubs
Makena & Jake. Fresno is not usually a destination of choice in a
travel itinerary and so far everyone we had outlined our plans to had
looked at us strangely when we got to that part; “Fresno? Why on Earth
are you going to Fresno? It’s the armpit of California ”
“We’re going to meet Nik ”
Fresno is a flat, sprawled out city of 3 million. Our first impression
was that the main industry must be health. Everywhere we looked there
were hospitals and dentists, Gastro specialists and allergy centres,
orthodontists and periodontists.....…every conceivable specialist.

Nik came out to greet us and burst into tears, her tiny frame giving
me one giant bear hug. It has been a tough few months for her and
hopefully our stay was a bit of a cheer up for her. We walked to dinner
at a local Italian restaurant, sat by the pool for some girl time, hung
out with the kids and generally chilled out together….Marco got to
wrestle with 5 year old Jake the Quake ~the girls wanted us to adopt a
little boy for him when they saw how much fun he could have.
We said goodbye to Nik with promises to meet up somewhere in January
and began the next leg of the trip to Ventura to visit the Farrys again.

Santana had been hanging out to see Brinsley again and had an even
better time this time than last meeting all of Brins friends and having 2
nights this time instead of one. When we left she told us she wanted to
come live with them as an exchange student for 6 months and go to
school with Brins. we had a fabulous stay as we always do when we get
together with Paul & Dara and hopefully we’ll see them in the snow
at Christmas.

The last leg of the trip took us back to Marcel & Julies in
Carlsbad with a quick stop to drop off our borrowed camping gear at Mark
& Christines. They were keen for us to stay for dinner but we were
exhausted and knew that we would be getting together for Marks 50th the
following week so back in the car we jumped and onwards to Carlsbad.

Mikela greeted us with big hugs and her new skill of putting several words together in a sentence.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.”
~Rumi

I'm sitting here in the sunroom answering emails and messages, talking to friends across the world and listening to the sounds of currawongs and lorikeets. Sometimes the kookaburras join in too but this morning they are absent. We have so many beautiful birds in Australia and I try not to take them for granted.

The shy little whip bird that hops around the shrubbery, the tiny finches that flit from the mulberry tree to the pineapple sage gathering sweetness. The cocky wattlebird that sends out warning signals every time the cats come near, ruffling up his feathers and declaring "How dare you! This is my yard!" before swooping them.

The diminutive but handsome willy wagtail sitting on the fence shaking his butt...the list goes on and on!

It seems that I have been drawn to birds in art forever!

Long before I ever put paint on paper, way back when Marco and I were new romancers in 1985 we bought our first piece of art together in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico. A beautiful woodblock print titled Exprisionera, it shows a bird breaking free of its boundaries,

a beautiful metaphor for life it hangs in our kitchen and reminds us each day that we are far more than our self imposed beliefs

Birds have appeared in so many of my paintings since I first began my art journey at the start of the new millenia...

2002

2004

2006-2008 birds appear everywhere in my Tree of Life and Garden of delights series

2006 more birdies in a series of colourful foam core prints

2009 inspiration from our trip to Mexico

from 2010 on birds continue to appear in my paintings! Can you find the little bird in the last one?

“I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than
what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to
listen.”
~Terry Tempest Williams

wishing you all an extraordinary week filled with birdsong and inspiration

Thank you so much everyone for all of your wonderful comments and support over these past few weeks and indeed throughout 2015! I a...

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. ~Rumi

Followers

sweet words from students :)

Dear Tracy,

I have had such an amazing response to your workshop. It has gone far beyond the painting of a picture. You have an incredible , supportive and intuitive energy that is contagious. Teaching others about freeing yourself up, from the ever present ‘critical mind’, is life changing. I am so inspired by your wonderful workshop. I have been applying simple messages from the day into my everyday life, and the roller coaster of life is so much richer and exciting with the knowledge of letting go and trusting in the process. This wonderful painting (that I have hung above my computer) reminds me every day that life always has a way of working out for the better if we just let go.....

Your way of teaching is subtle, yet powerful, and you guide others to discover for themselves important insights. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of this very special day

~Vanessa

Thanks again Tracy for such a wonderful, colourful, transformative, powerful, peaceful weekend.....I really see how much I get caught in detail and perfection and beautifying and how this has it's value but as you pointed out to me, if I'm feeling like I'm tensing and tightening up with this then move the energy, shift and also be bold to make big changes if things aren't working! That's a big one. But this is life, nothing ever stays completely the same does it!SO yes thanks SO very much for your colourful, loving, gentle yet powerful and generous sharing on the weekend. Looking forward to journeying more with you creatively and in friendship.~Katie